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Mostly Harmless

Natalie Jobling and Tom Hayhoe's J105

JOG race to Lymington and Royal Southern Poole Bar Double

With Natalie’s attention focused on the final pieces of work for her physiotherapy MSc, Tom called on Ralph Mason and Ben Rogers, who first sailed with us on our Sigma 33 Mithril, to co-skipper for the first couple of weekends in May, racing from Cowes to Lymington by way of Bembridge Ledge and from the mid Solent to Poole Bar buoy and back to the western Solent. (As it turned out, both races were over slightly shorter courses because of forecast light winds, with Bembridge Ledge buoy replaced by Warner and the Poole Bar buoy replaced by Ledge, a mark in the middle of Christchurch Bay).

Without the regular primary helm, Tom had first to remind himself how to start.  After years running round the boat and pulling the strings for Natalie, he was concerned that he might have lost his touch but needn’t have worried.  But what matters is what happens later in the race.

After leading the JOG fleet on handicap approaching the Forts, Mostly Harmless slipped back and finished mid fleet in Class 2 and second in double handed.  Mostly Harmless led the Royal Southampton fleet approaching Yarmouth before missing a windshift and being overtaken by Hot Pursuit, who built up a significant lead on the beat out to Ledge Buoy.  Mostly Harmless made a better job of sailing the downwind angles on the run back too the finish at Zwerver to take line honours, but did not have a big enough margin to beat Hot Pursuit on handicap.

No sailing this weekend – but a very smart ship

“….looking smarter than she or any of our boats  have ever looked at the end of March”

We used to have had several outings already by late March, racing in the Warsash Spring Series, but that was thirty years ago in  Mithril , our Sigma 33, twenty years ago in the previous Mostly Harmless , our Prima 38, or even ten years ago when we were still regularly racing this  Mostly Harmless  fully crewed.  More recently, the opening events of our season have been the JOG Nab Tower and Great Escape Races.  However, because the priority has always been to get a afloat with the boat prepared to race – but not worry about appearances – we have generally started the season with the boats looking, dare we say it, just a bit grubby.

Looking at the forecast for Saturday (F5-F6, and about 10 degrees C) and at our respective degrees of fatigue (the skipper completing the last week of her final placement for her Physiotherapy MSc, and the foredeck monkey/sheet grinder/navigator very busy with his new part-time job in Jersey and chairing a professional regulatory hearing), we decided to give Saturday’s Nab Tower Race a miss, but were entered for Sunday’s Great Escape Race (a trip down to Lymington, back to Spithead and then finishing on the JOG line at Gurnard).  But the foredeck monkey/sheet grinder/navigator went down a with a nasty cold so, although the forecast for Sunday was more benign, we gave it a miss.

Nonetheless, with Mostly Harmless launched and in the water, the foredeck monkey/sheet grinder/navigator/boat domestic,  feeling a bit better by mid-morning, set off for HYS.  After a couple of hours  blasting with the pressure hose the boat is looking smarter than she  or any of other boats have ever looked at the end of March.

JOG races to Weymouth and Yarmouth without the regular driver

With Natalie facing an exam imminently, Tom was joined by David Vialls for the JOG Race to Weymouth in mid May (and return leg of the Royal Southampton YC Double the following day – more on this below) and by Tori Davies for the JOG races to Yarmouth and back on the following weekend.

Coming off the Gurnard start line for the race to Weymouth, the angle for Hurst and the wind strength meant that all of Class 2 headed off under white sails.  But within a few hundred yards, Jacana, fully-crewed and the only other J105, flew a masthead asymmetric and showed a clean pair of heels to rest of the fleet.  Other kites were broken out as the wind freed and dropped a bit.  With a lighter boat than most of competitors and, racing double-handed, no spare ballast to park on the weather rail, we played it safe.

We kept up well until halfway down the west Solent, but were late deciding to hoist our fractional spinnaker and lost ground unnecessarily before working our way back through the fleet as we approached the Hurst Narrows.

The fast reach across Christchurch Bay suited a double handed J105 with a small spinnaker. We steadily closed on Jacana, which appeared to struggle with bigger kite despite a full crew and we were not far behind and well placed overall by the time we reached St Albans. But the wind then dropped and became very patchy.  We missed the nice bit of breeze that carried Sunfast 3300 Muzungu through to her Double Handed Class win by no more than a dozen boat lengths and dropped from the prospect of second place in Class 2 to mid fleet after to taking over an hour to complete the last few miles cross Weymouth Bay to the finish.

We emerged from Weymouth Harbour on Sunday morning to a radio message that the start of the Royal Southampton race back to the Solent had been postponed by an hour because of the lack of wind.  Looking at the forecast, we made the call to scratch early and motored as far as Anvil Point where the wind picked up for an enjoyable cruising sail back to Hamble.  It was the right call, as it turned out the race was abandoned later in the morning.

The following Saturday, with professional bow person Tori on board, Tom demonstrated that his starting skills, somewhat rusty after a dozen years running round Mostly Harmless while Natalie steers, were still sharp, as shown by Rick Tomlinson’s photo below.

The start set us up for a satisfying opening leg to the No-Man’s Land Fort, with a change sheet rigged and constant trimming resulting in us arriving first, ahead of much higher rated boats.  We lost this as we played safe on the marginal spinnaker leg to Bembridge Ledge, but recovered much of the lost ground as we headed west after re-rounding No-Man’s Land Fort.

We were heading for a podium finish in Double Handed and Class 2 but for getting the angle wrong (Tom blames misbehaving GPS) on the cross tide penultimate leg when we allowed Jacana through and lost critical minutes that put us back to mid-fleet.

We were apprehensive about the short Sunday morning race back to Cowes, which was going to be to windward in a “wind against tide” Solent chop in about 15 knots of breeze, as we struggle to sail to our handicap when double-handed in such conditions.  But we more than held our own and were once again in contention at the last turning mark when we fluffed the spinnaker hoist and had to recover the kite from the water (done very efficiently!) before getting it back up for  short down-tide run to the finish line.

(Photos from JOG website, by Paul Wyeth for Weymouth race and Rick Tomlinson for Yarmouth race)

JOG Home Ports Regatta – 3rd place in a soldier’s wind and 3rd overall in double-handed series

Northerlies do not offer much opportunity for beats or deep downwind legs on the Solent, with the result that Mostly Harmless neither hoisted a spinnaker or Code 0 nor tacked other than when rounding a mark in the penultimate race of the JOG season.

After the frustrations of the start in our previous JOG race, Natalie approached the line at Gurnard assertively and was on the line at the gun, to windward and ahead of the rest of the fleet.  Trimming for all we were worth, we held off the competition on the reach to Browndown, possibly benefitting as a short-handed crew from any temptation to fly a Code 0.

Pure Attitude, an X37 rating well above Mostly Harmless, and Just So, fully crewed and able to carry not only her Code 0 but also a jib as an inner staysail, had the edge on a reach west with the tide to West Lepe.  Heading back to the east to East Knoll buoy we all faced the challenge of a strong ebb.  Pure Attitude showed a clean pair of heels by heading well above the rhumb line to get inshore leaving us kicking ourselves for failing to make the same call and get into weaker tide.  We came close to hoisting our A5 on a slightly deeper penultimate leg and had it clipped on before the wind piped up to 16 knots and swung a few degrees forward so it remained in the bag.

Arriving at the final mark, North East Ryde Middle, we were still fairly close to Just So and saw Pure Attitude experiencing problems with the furler for either her Code 0 or jib.  With Just So still able to carry extra canvas, she opened up her lead to finish four minutes ahead of us on corrected time, while Pure Attitude’s problems resulted in us closing her lead over Mostly Harmless to only 12 seconds, leaving us third in class.

This was also good enough for Mostly Harness to secure 2nd overall among the double handed entries, behind Deb Fish and Rob Craigie in Bellino. Combined with our other results, this meant we were third overall in the 2022 JOG double-handed championship.

The race had finished early enough for us to head back up to London.  We were planning to return for Sunday’s race but having had a good day on Saturday and exhausted by our efforts opted for a quiet day reading the papers and getting on with domestic chores.

Late summer race with JOG to Poole – and a difficult call for the race officer on way back

Lots of things got in the way of our programme on Mostly Harmles during the summer: an operation, a grandparent trip to New York, a cycling holiday in Albania, the competing attraction of Tom’s Waszp – and a shortage of appealing events in August since Cowes Week stopped offering a double handed IRC class start.

But we were back in action for the annual September trip to Poole with JOG. The start was a challenge, with the wind dying away almost completely and a downtide start on springs.  Despite due caution, approaching the start-line maybe fifteen seconds late, we had to switch on the engine for a few seconds in order to avoid the tide carrying Mostly Harmless onto Gurnard Buoy (the outer end of the line).  We duly declared this, anticipating a penalty, but were generously treated by the race committee (possibly because we gained no advantage other than avoid potential damage, and were out of the chocolates at the finish and out of contention for a top place in the series overall).

At least we were able to continue with the race, and arrived at Bembridge Ledge Buoy in contact with the class leaders.  With a northerly breeze coming over the Island, the passage from Dunnose Point to St Catherine’s promised to be interesting.  We spotted evidence of a katabatic wind inshore and an absence of wind out to sea and felt very smug as we snuck up inside the rest of fleet who thought that they would do better away from shore and by St Cats were leading Class 2.  The wind then filled in properly from the west, putting a double handed J105 at a slight disadvantage against stiffer, fully crewed boats with better potential upwind speed.  We finally crossed the line close to Poole Bar in 6th, but less than 6 minutes on corrected time behind the winner.

We were very sorry for the Race Officer on Sunday morning, as we headed out to the start of the race back to Cowes in glassy conditions.  The wind was forecast to increase at some point during the morning but the fleet needed to reach the Hurst Narrows before the tide started to ebb out of the Solent.  The VHF traffic among the fleet suggested that everyone was happy when racing was abandonned, even if the promised wind arrived within minutes of the decision being taken.

Second and third in opening races of Royal Southampton Double Handed Series

The opening races of the Royal Southampton Double Handed Series were sailed in “goldilocks” conditions – not too breezy and not too light – and sunny as well, but nonetheless distinctly chilly for April.  The first race was a two lap, windward-leeward course in minimal tide.  The second was designed be rather longer, essentially a large triangular course, involving a long beat in a strong flood tide that resulted in a lot of relatively short tacks up the Hampshire shore between Browndown and Hill Head.

We arrived at the first windward mark in Race 1 in the middle of the fleet but were quick off wind and had pulled through to second by the leeward mark, consolidated our position on the second beat to finish behind Farr 30, Akarana 4 whose crew came home first in both races.

We did not cover ourselves in glory at the start of Race 2 and had a recovery job ahead of us on the long beat up past Lee on the Solent.  However, hugging the shore paid dividends and we worked our way past Azygos, Bombardino and Brenda’s J to finish second on the water but unable insufficiently far ahead of Brenda’s J to beat her on handicap.

Same old story – blistering speed offwind, not so fast upwind

The opening races of the JOG coastal series took place over the last weekend of March, when the clocks go forward.  This created an unusual opportunity for course setting, allowing for a race out to the east to the Nab Tower on Saturday starting in favourable tide and a race out to the west to Bridge Buoy, just beyond the Needles, also heading out in favourable tide.

The wind was in the east on both days, slightly stronger on Saturday with gusts into the high teens in knots, and generally gentle in single figures on Sunday.   The easterly meant that the Lonely Tower Race started with a beat to the Forts, a close fetch to the Nab, a marginal spinnaker leg to the Winner Buoy off Hayling Island and finally a run back to Cowes.  In contrast, the Great Escape Race started with a run to Bridge and then a beat back up the Needles Channel and east Solent to the finish.

Racing upwind against fully crewed boats in a force four does not suit a double handed J105 so we were well down the fleet by the time we reached the Nab Tower on Saturday.  Sailing double handed with Tom doing his first race since starting to draw his state old age pension, he chose to play safe on the reach to the Winner and not hoist the spinnaker until late in the leg and also elected to race with the smaller A5 spinnaker for the leg back to Cowes.  Despite this, we made up a huge amount of ground on the downwind leg to finish at the midpoint in Class 2 only 8 seconds behind our regular mixed doubled handed rivals Purple Mist and 10 minutes behind the other J105, Jacana who were racing fully crewed.

Sunday was another matter, with the light downwind conditions on the opening leg playing to Mostly Harmless’s strengths.  By the Hurst Narrows, we were well ahead of all of Class 2.  As a result of an excess of caution and deciding to sail deep on the approach to Bridge in order to avoid too many gybes, we lost the lead to Hot Rats at the mark and then steadily slid back through the fleet on the long beat against the tide back to the JOG finish line, once again to finish a the midpoint in Class 2 (but at least beating Jacana this time).

Hoping for an injury-free season in 2022

After a year in which our sailing was compromised early on by Tom’s cycling injuries and later by Natalie’s, we are hoping for an injury-free year in 2022.

We are planning another year focussed on double handed racing, in the  JOG  inshore series (where we hope to lock horns with other J105s both fully crewed and short-handed),  Royal Southampton ‘s double handed series, and at least some the of races in the  UK Double Handed Offshore Series  .  Tom will be filling in the gaps in Mostly Harmless’s programme by continuing to learn to sail his  Waszp  at  Datchet Water Sailing Club  (building on a promising start to the year with 2 outings in January for the first time since the 1990s) and Natalie has been recruited as navigator for the Danish crew for the Womens’s Open Keelboat Championship in the Solent in July.

Details of our provisional programme here .

Wicked down-wind speed, but lost out in lottery at Bridge

The JOG weekend races to Poole and back have been among our favourite races since the 1990s, marking the transition from the summer to the autumn season.

With a light wind, down-tide start, we played it safe on the start-line before carving our way through the fleet by sailing hotter angles and were leading Classs 2 by the time we got to Hurst.  But the wind turned inside out at Bridge Buoy and, allowing two J109s to get through us, and leaving a huge gap behind us.  Despite our best efforts, we were unable to recover the lead and finished ten minutes behind Jedi (skippered by William Tahourdin, a former Mostly Harmless crew member) and Mojo Risin’, with the rest of the fleet out of sight way behind us.

The outlook for breeze for the race back to Cowes on Sunday was very light, with a big question about the fleet being able to cope with the ebb tide at Hurst and getting home at a sensible time.  With the AP flag flying on the committee boat, we turned the engine and autohelm on for a leisurely motor back to the Hamble.

Sitting out the Fastnet – on top of Hurst Castle

Having ducked out of the Fastnet and with it looking a bit breezy at Datchet for a novice Waszp sailor, I went down to Hurst with my camera to watch the fleet go by.  It was quite a day, with a big crowd heading out along the spit to enjoy the fleet beating out in a big breeze and, in the Narrows, some steep waves whipped up with the wind against the ebb tide.

First through were big multihulls and the IMOCA fleet……

……. and a little later, after a 33 strong fleet of Class 40s and a handful of Figaro 3s, the 264 IRC entries (or at least all those who had made it to the start line given the adverse forecast)

I made a particular effort to take photos of the J105s racing and of entrants in the UK Double Handed Offshore Series.  I was completely unsuccessful in the first regard – I can only assume that they very sensibly went through the Narrows on the Island shore where the waves were least and were screened from me by other competitors.  And I was only partially successful in the second, for example only getting a glimpse of the stern of Purple Mist, sailed by Kate Cope who is the prime mover in UKDHOS.  Click here to see the photos of UKDHOS competitors .